SOARS Manuscripts

Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) data were collected for regions spanning approximately 4000 km² in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica. The efficacy of using digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from these data for geomorphic mapping applications in the Dry Valleys are assessed. Usi…

Boundary layer convergence zones (BLCZs), atmospheric features that are capable of causing convergence near the surface, are well-known to be precursors of thunderstorm development. Recent field projects have provided useful data from surface stations as well as reflectivity, velocity, and a new rad…

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) of Alexandrium catenella have been documented in Puget Sound, Washington State, for over 60 years. A. Catenella produce a suite of potent neurotoxins, known collectively as Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PSTs), that accumulate in filter feeding shellfish. Consumption of cont…

The network common data form (netCDF) was created by Unidata at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research to simplify data access and sharing in the atmospheric and geoscience science community. Even though the current full release of netCDF, known at netCDF-3, has proven to be successful,…

Over oceans, unexpected convection can adversely affect airplane travel. To mitigate such hazards, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) asked the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) to develop techniques that warn of imminent convection. The challenge: few traditional observations are…

Plant respiration and photosynthesis are thought to influence the amount of oxygen -18 isotopes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, but water vapor trapped along with collected air samples affects the isotopic analysis process. If carbon dioxide exchanges Oxygen-19 isotopes with water vapor in the collec…

Colorado's Front Range region is experiencing rapid growth in population, and therefore significant changes in land cover characteristics, in an already flood-prone environment. To observe the effects these changes have had on urban hydrology patters, an analysis of land cover change between 1992 an…

Mesoscale Convective Systems or MCS, formed particularly in the mid latitudes, are responsible for a great deal of damage especially in the summer time. These systems are hard to predict and forecast since many of the instruments used to collect data inside of them are not always reliable and are li…

The Pacific Atmospheric Sulfur Experiment (PASE) is a study with a primary goal aimed at understanding the sulfur cycle in a remote marine atmosphere. The study will be conducted in August and September months of 2007 at Christmas Island on board the NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft. It will foremost focus o…

A major earthquake which occurred near Koryakia, Russian during April 20, 2006 is analyzed and given perspective in contrast with the historical seismicity, plate tectonics and the local geology of the area. The relevance of this earthquake is that it occurred in a complex geological area, where the…

Since 1985, the South Florida Metropolitan area (SFMA), which covers the counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, has been directly affected by 9 tropical cyclones, four tropical storms and 5 hurricanes. This continuous hurricane and tropical storm activity has awakened the conscience of the…

Many people are not aware that features of the natural and built environment could impact the severity of floods in their neighborhoods. To better educate the public on these matters, and interactive learning module was created to inform broadcast meteorologists how the built environment can impact …

The North American Monsoon (NAM), which occurs over the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, has an immense effect on the climate in this region. Multiple global atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) have had difficulty predicting the convective precipitation observed with th…

Many transport and dispersion (T&D) models use observational data or mesoscale-model-generated forecast winds as input. This research examines how errors in these input wind fields can translate into T&D model solution errors. In particular, this study focuses on street level plume errors that occur…

Extreme events, particularly flooding events, have devastating economic and social effects on the United States. These effects have led meteorologists, hydrologists, as well as statisticians, to study flooding and other extreme events using frequency analysis to estimate their likelihood of occurrin…

Volcanoes can be hazardous if increased pressure in the magma chamber becomes great enough that magma is forced upward through a crack to the ground surface and erupts. The magma chamber which lies beneath a volcano is a large underground pool of molten rock lying under the surface of the earth's cr…

The occurrence of a Koryakia, Russia magnitude 7.6 earthquake during April 2006 was a mysterious and unusual event. Although the study area is geographically located near two major plates boundaries, the main event and those that followed may support evidence for existence of a microplate. This eart…

Surface ozone has negative health effects, it is considered a criteria pollutant by the U.S.E.P.A., and can damage crops and building materials. In the Northern Hemisphere, surface background ozone is increasing in remote locations. This increase is believed to be due to the increase in anthropogeni…

Transient and steady-state model response due to diabatic heating in the equatorial region is studied to gain insight of tropical circulations using two simple nonlinear numerical models. In the first part of this study, different heat sources are used to represent the continental areas of South Ame…

Households contribute at least 20% to total U.S. carbon emission, but there is little scientific literature exploring this area. The purchase of carbon offsets is a new approach for households to manage their emissions or become carbon neutral. The primary concern behind carbon offsets is that consu…

In order to mitigate effects of climate change, governing entities need to limit carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere to a concentration yet to be determined. To assist policymakers, this experiment tested selected sensitivities of the land and ocean sinks to a proposed CO₂ stabilization scenario …

Given the drastic increase in shoreline habitation in hurricane zones and recent hurricane disasters such as Katrina (2005), every effort should be made to improve the accuracy of hurricane simulations. In this research project, a simulation of Katrina was run using the WRF (Weather Research and For…

The magnitude of emissions associated with urban activities will increase as urban population increases. Prolonged exposure to air pollution can negatively affect humans and the environment. The goal of this research project is to examine how changes in urban emissions affect the concentration of ch…

The Cenozoic era was a time of global-scale changes not only in climate, but also in the levels of angiosperm and insect diversity. Previous work on plant-insect relationships suggests that these temporal and climatic factors may have played a role in the evolution of such interactions. To test thes…

We are addressing the challenge of operating a permenent GPS station in the harsh environment in Antarctica. The power and communications systems must operate year-round in the polar region where it is freezing, windy, and dark during the winter. We are working on three major parts of the GPS statio…